Chapter 8
The Siren and the Carmelita continued their journey to the Isle of Forbidden Fruit. As they got close to the island, thick fog wrapped around them.
"Fernald said there's fog here all the time," Fiona told Klaus. "That's why it has never been charted."
"What is he trying to find there?" Klaus asked.
"Forbidden fruit," Fiona said. "I guess."
Klaus said "Originally that meant fruit from the Garden of Eden, then it came to mean anything people want just because it's forbidden. I wish I'd been able to read that book we found."
Both ships landed at the dock of a small village. Fernald and Jarvis got off the Carmelita. Widdershins, Fiona, and Klaus got off the Siren.
"The village seems to be deserted. Aye!" said Widdershins.
"That's good," said Fernald. "We can get a jump on the pirates when they come back."
"Unless they're hiding in the forest, waiting to get a jump on us," said Jarvis nervously.
"We need to find the fruit trees," said Fernald. "Scylla will be here any minute and I'd like to tell her I know where to look. I can't make sense out of this old book. Here, bookworm, make yourself useful."
He handed the book to Klaus, who took it eagerly and began to skim through it.
"The plane, boss, the plane!" said Jarvis.
A small hydroplane landed in the lagoon and splashed up to the dock. Scylla Charybdis, the woman with hair and no beard, jumped out. Fernald ran to her and she gave him a quick kiss.
"Has everything gone smoothly, Fernald?" she asked.
"Just fine," said Fernald.
"How are my eagles?" Scylla asked.
"Well... they all flew away. Quigley put something on the airship that repelled them," said Fernald.
"What incompetence! But at least you sank it and destroyed those volunteers," said Scylla.
"Well... I thought it would cause trouble if Fiona and Widdershins saw me do that, so I just took them prisoner."
"What weakness! But that can be remedied later," said Scylla. "Do you have the book we needed? Have you found any clues?"
"Klaus is checking it over now," said Fernald.
"Klaus? He's not only here and alive but you let him read the book? What idiocy!"
Scylla shoved Fernald aside and charged over to Klaus. "Give me that!" she demanded, snatching the book from him.
"Don't you dare..." Fiona started to say, but now Fiona saw that Scylla truly had an aura of menace. She backed off, subdued.
Scylla glanced at the book, which was open to the page Klaus had been reading.
"We have to find the Corridors of Skulls," she said. "They are the only passage to the trees."
In the brig of the Carmelita, the prisoners were working out a plan. The Duchess and I had freed ourselves of our ropes long before, but there was no point trying to escape while at sea. Now that we had landed we had a chance.
"I know the security systems of this sub," I said. "Kit designed it before Olaf stole it and she showed me the plans. For example, there's an emergency code on the electronic door lock to keep from accidentally getting locked in."
I held down the zero key on the numeric code pad with my thumb and punched in a three-digit code. The door slid open.
"Grantastic!" said Sunny, reverting to a private word expressing approval.
"We can't go out the top hatch," said Duncan. "We'd be spotted for sure."
"There's another way out, but it'll be harder," I said. "I don't think we can all make it unless we can find air tanks."
"I spotted a diving equipment room on our way in," said Quigley.
We found three tanks of compressed air with breathing masks. We also found the controls for the intake tube of the octopus "mouth" that had captured the Queequeg once. I turned the tube as close to the surface as I could.
"We'll swim out the tube, in pairs with strong swimmers helping weaker ones. We can share breaths from the air tanks. The strong swimmers can bring the tanks back in and help the next person get out," I said.
"Scouts?" asked Sunny.
"Yes, we'll have to help the Snow Scouts escape, too," said Isadora.
While we were doing this, the land party walked all around the shore of the island looking for the entrance to the Corridors of Skulls.
Finally, Klaus suggested, "The passage about the Corridors of Skulls said something about a volcanic trap. It seems to me they would have to be inland, closer to the volcano in the center of the island."
"Shut up, smart guy," said Fernald, still angry over failing to impress Scylla.
"He's right, we have to go inland," said Scylla.
Soon they found it, a tunnel into the volcanic rocks completely lined with human skulls.
"The book said the pirates built these corridors from the skulls of their enemies over many years," Klaus said. "It also said if you can't find the prime path then your own skull will be added to them."
Fernald picked up a rock and tossed it into the tunnel. The moment it hit the bottom of the passage there was a click and a blast of super-heated air shot down the tunnel. It would have scorched his fingers if he had any.
"Since you're so smart, Klaus, you go ahead and figure it out," said Fernald.
"No!" cried Fiona.
"We have a lot of spare Snow Scouts," said Scylla. "If Klaus won't do it we can solve it by trial and error."
"I'll do it," said Klaus.